Biology Games

Former CEO

"Phylo" (as in "phylogenetic tree") is a very weird experience, and you'll need to read the instructions carefully to begin to make sense of it, but it's highly relevant to areas of current interest to us. You are invited to shuffle around various partial genetic sequences, from multiple species, to match the most likely genetic common ancestor of the genes. The project actually enables the game-player to contribute to science in the process: the sequences of interest are real genetic sequences from data banks and the idea is to use the human ability to spot the patterns which computers don't see so easily. I think what's going on in this game is vaguely related to the sort of analysis involved in the recent Hue paper, so it might give some insights into the uncertainties involved in sequence analysis. Not the most entertaining or thrilling game...but it's interesting...

The second game is one I haven't played yet, but I'm told it's a good aid to learning about cell biology. If I understand correctly, your goal is to protect a cell from attack by harnessing its various parts appropriately. I gather one needs a decent knowledge of the parts of the cell to play the game successfully, but it sounds like a fun way to learn about the subject: